Hacked: Online Thieves Stole Data From HBO and Demands $6 Million

Image Source: LADbible

HBO, an American premium cable company owned by HBO Inc. (Time Warner), is the latest victim of cyber criminal activity after it has reported that last month, it was hit by hackers. Richard Pleper, CEO and chairman of HBO, told his employees on Monday, July 31st, that the company was involved in a cyber incident and had some proprietary information and programming stolen. The email also says that the company has been working with law enforcement to investigate the incident. They also have asked for help from outside cuber security firms though it wasn’t specified which ones.

Among the stolen data were episodes of the HBO series like “Ballers” and “Room 104” that hasn’t been aired yet. The hackers may also have stolen some written materials from the series “Game of Thrones”. All in all, the hackers were said to have pilfered some 1.5 terabytes of data.

As of now, the identities of the hackers are unknown. The media got hold of the story after the hackers have sent an anonymous email to some reporters. The email boasts that the “greatest leak of (the) cyber space era is happening” and said that the leak is about HBO and Game of Thrones.

Game of Thrones, an HBO series (Image Source: abcnews)

One week later, the hacker, calling himself as Mr. Smith, posted more data and demanded several million dollars from HBO as ransom. Part of the data dumped were scripts for five Game of Thrones episode, that include one upcoming episode, and one month’s worth of emails by Leslie Cohen, the vice president for film programming for HBO.

The hacker made a video directed to Richard Plepler that uses white text and a black background. In it, the hacker demanded “our 6 month salary in bitcoin” claiming it to be worth $6 million to stop further leaking.

Then again just yesterday, August 14th, the hackers have leaked more data. The Associated Press reported that this time the hackers leaked some unaired episodes from the series Curb Your Enthusiasm, Ballers, Insecure, The Deuce, and others. Variety also found out that HBO has offered the hackers $250,000 on July 27, three days before the hacks were first reported. This is because that the hackers have contacted HBO before and HBO offered the sum as part of their company’s program, where white hat hackers are paid for reporting vulnerabilities. A Variety’s source explained that the offer was only to stall time and assess the damages while assuming the possibility that the hackers might take the offer.

And it seems that HBO is intending to drag this out, without any intention of paying up. HBO’s statement that they don’t intend to release a statement every time the hackers leak information seems to imply that they want to ignore the hackers’ demands until they get caught.

Orange is the New Black, a Netflix series (Image Source: the Orange is the New Black wiki)

HBO is now part of some of the big names in Hollywoood falling victim to hackers. Earlier this year, Netflix was also hacked by thieves. Because of this some episodes of “Orange is the New Black’s” season 5 were leaked before their release date in June. And just 3 years ago, Sony was hacked and the thieves stole personal pieces of information and email exchanges between actors and executives.

Something interesting to point out is the relationship between the hackers and HBO. In the 2nd leak, one week after the hacking was reported, the hackers demanded “our 6 month salary in bitcoin.” Now the question is why would the hackers say that? Why would they need to mention “6 month salary” then imply it is around $6 million instead of just saying $6 million outright? Does HBO actually know who the hackersare, possibly former employees of the company or connected to the company, someone who they must have been paying at least $1 million a month?